Chapter Ten
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"It's time to go, Lok." Azula climbed to her feet. The nap on the crystal floor had left her sore and tense, and she stretched in all the ways Dancemaster Ae Sook had taught to ease tired muscles. It was imperative, after all, for a lady never to look tired at the end of an evening of dancing. It didn't matter how much it hurt, a lady of Ba Sing Se didn't emstop/em, not for the Avatar, death, or a hundred soldiers.
"Well, that's just bully for you to say!" Lok snapped, jerking on the few inches of slack in his chains.
A thin lattice of crystal divided their cells. In his, Lok stood painfully balanced on a pair of high wooden sandals, iron chains pulling his arms up at an angle that made breathing hard. Sweat plastered his hair to his skull. As she watched, he grabbed onto the chains and swung himself forward- even with the sandals, his kick couldn't hit the door with any force.
The move might not have damaged the door, but it did highlight the always fascinating slide of his muscles. And the bruises darkening his ribs and sides.
She bared her teeth. The Dai Li would pay.
Anger rose hot in her, in every way. She snapped her fingers, and sparks fell to the ground. "Brace yourself."
Lok shot her a curious look that quickly changed to alarm-
Red fire smashed and melted through the crystals between their cells, until the floor blackened and the smoke made her eyes water. Even then, she held it a moment longer before extinguishing it. It felt good to firebend.
Lok had shied as far away as the chains would let him, his face turned away from her. His entire side and part of his back were heat-reddened, and she saw blisters forming on the hand chained closest to her.
Shame filled her stomach. She'd lost control again. Worse, she'd lost control and hurt someone she hadn't meant to. All Lok had done was be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Well, and throw the street at the Dai Li. He didn't deserve to suffer from her failure as a firebender.
She didn't know what to say exactly to explain that, so she fell back on her etiquette training. "I'm sorry."
Lok laughed shakily. "Guess this explains what they wanted you for."
"No, they wanted me for breaking into their secret base with the Avatar," Azula said archly. "They've been watching us for years. Lee's an idiot, so they have to have known about the firebending by now."
"Your father's going to kill me," Lok muttered. "Some job of keeping an eye on you I'm doing."
She blinked. "What?"
"Do you have a plan for the chains, Miss Oma-"
"What was that about keeping an eye on me for my father?" she snapped.
"That's... pretty much the long and short of it, really." He tilted his head up towards the ceiling. "He figured there'd be less unpleasantness about you running around outside of school if you had someone capable of, ah, how'd he put it? 'Hitting anything dangerous over the head with a large rock.'" Lok rattled his chains thoughtfully. "Not a nice man, your father."
Azula gaped. Father had known all along? He'd hired Lok to keep an eye on her- All right, so he could throw around more earthbending power than some soldiers. But he was Lok! He was shirtless and gossipy and always willing to follow her into trouble... "How long has this been going on?"
Lok suddenly found the ceiling even more fascinating. "How long have I been taking you where you want to go?"
That was not acceptable.
"You work for me!" she snapped. "Not for Mother, not for Father, for me!"
"We should table this discussion until we're not in the Dai Li's secret prison." He jerked on his chains again, and she shot him a dirty look. He just spread his hands as best as he was able and grinned. "I'd hate to have my cousin come along and interrupt."
Azula took a deep breath and quelled the fire threatening to consume her. "Don't tell me you have a cousin in the Dai Li."
"Sure thing, Miss Oma."
"Is there any part of this city where you don't have relatives?" She took a breath, held it, and let it out slowly. She did it again and again until the fire in her heart burned absolutely steady. She needed to have absolute control to cut those chains from him.
Lok looked thoughtful. "Not so much in Little Omashu. They're too new."
Azula walked to the far end of the cell, all of five paces. Then she took a running leap towards Lok and slashed out with her firebending.
He yelped and flinched away, and the chains fell free from the ceiling. The severed links still glowed red.
She smiled, pleased with herself. Dancemaster Ae Sook had not intended that as a firebending move, but it worked marvelously. "Hold still. I'll met the lengths off."
"Yeah, no." Lok grabbed hold of a chain and swung it hard into the wall. The -crack- of the chain striking made Azula snap fire into her palms. Crystal chimed crazily as shards fell to the floor.
Lok stooped and picked up a shard. "First, I'm getting these geta off my feet. Then we're getting out of here."
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"So, where are we going?"
Azula tossed a glare over her shoulder. "To find my idiot brother. He's firebending, so he probably dove headlong into trouble without thinking. Again."
"Never would have expected that from anyone in your family," Lok said drily.
"What is with you?" she snapped. "You aren't usually this irritating!"
He grabbed her by the shoulder and yanked her around to face him. Then he pointed at the black eye, the bruises covering his chest and sides, and the light burns she'd so carelessly given him. Then he turned his hand over to display the heat blisters. "You'll forgive me if I'm not feeling entirely respectful of your pride, Miss Oma."
She jerked away from him. The sensation of fire flickered around her fingertips. It'd be easy to burn right now- No. She was Azula, she was her father's daughter, and she was in control. She was not some prissy little third-rate merchant's daughter to throw a temper-fit over Lok being unable to ignore his pain. "Let's go, Lok."
"Lead the way, Miss Oma."
She did, stalking off and ignoring the soft clink as his chains clicked against conglomerates of glowing crystal. There was fire close up ahead, real fire, and if her stupid brother thought she needed rescuing, she was going to burn him after she incinerated the Dai Li.
Rounding a corner, she nearly walked into a gate of interlocking crystal teeth. Her glare intensified, and she hurled fire at it, ignoring the prickle of cold in her fingertips. Crystal blackened, cracked, and melted. The sounds of fighting could be clearly heard - the shift and rasp of stone from earthbending, the crackle of flames, the soft sound of things flying through the air.
Azula leapt over the melted lump of crystal and punched fire at the nearest Dai Li agent. With a sharp gesture, he raised a rock shield. It crumbled under the onslaught of her fire, then Lok's chain whistled past her to catch the man hard in the chest.
Across the room, she could see Zuko cutting a path towards her, his dao swords burning red. A girl in a bright green tunic and pants darted around stalagmites, making Dai Li agents fall with only a few quick strikes. She caught sight of a boy Zuko's age kicking a Dai Li agent in the head, then dropping down to sweep the man's legs out from under him. Lei stood by the door, a handful of perfectly oval rocks orbiting around her head. Another girl in a dark green and black dress stood next to her, resolutely sending knives and needles and shuriken at any Dai Li who threatened Zuko or the girl in bright green. Every one of them, except for Zuko, had a dark green scarf covering their face. Even so, something about the two unknown girls seemed familiar. They couldn't be from school, could they?
"'Scuse me, Miss Oma." Lok brushed past her, beelining for one particular Dai Li agent who was doing a good job avoiding the girl in bright green, the other girl's knives, and Zuko's swords. Lok was almost on top of him before the Dai Li agent noticed, and he scrambled to get away. Lok snagged him by the braid and shoved him facefirst into a stalactite with a resounding -crack-. "Jackass!"
"Let me guess," Azula said mildly, "your cousin?"
Lok let the Dai Li agent drop. "Yeah."
"Azula, look out!" the girl in bright green yelled.
Azula whirled, blue fire coming in an arcing shield. One of the rock gloves melted, but the other seized on her dress and started to drag her back-
A shuriken, gleaming bright and deadly, struck it. The glove shattered to dust, and the shuriken clattered to the floor.
Red flame roared past her, igniting the Dai Li agent's robes. He screamed, and Azula threw her own blue fire at him, hot and terrible-
The girl in bright green bounced through the flames and hit the Dai Li agent twice. He dropped like a rock, and she turned to yell at them. "Stop it! He's down!"
Reluctantly, Azula extinguished her flames, and she felt Zuko do the same. His fire snuffed more easily than hers did, but he didn't really train with it anymore. Not like she did. He didn't care about being a firebender, she thought viciously. She turned towards him to tell him what a fool he was for thinking she needed to be rescued-
Zuko's mask was so much charred wood now, and smoke drifted from his mouth. For a moment, he looked so much like Father it made her shiver.
"I think that's all of them," the masked boy said, and Azula recognized the voice of one or the other of Zuko's school-friends. "Let's go before your sister's... friend? falls over."
"I'm a lot less likely to fall over than you are," Lok growled.
"Oh, Azula, who put you in a dress?" the girl in bright green asked, reaching out to clasp her shoulder. "And it's all torn! It looks like it was pretty before."
Azula stared at the girl. Light brown hair, braid, round face, grey eyes- "Ty Lee?" She darted a glance at the dark girl standing next to Lei. "Mai? What are you-? How did you even get here?"
"Uncle's in town," Zuko said shortly.
"Who else has no idea what's going on?" Zuko's school friend raised his hand. "Since when can you firebend, gold-eyes?"
"Since when can you kick people in the head?"
"It's a hobby. Everyone's got to have a hobby."
"Kicking people in the head is not a hobby!"
"Martial training is a hobby."
"Only if you're not planning to be a soldier!"
"Guess what, gold eyes? I'm not planning to be a soldier!"
Lei picked Azula up and hugged her. "You're all right! That's wonderful. You hear such terrible things about the Dai Li."
Azula squeaked. She'd forgotten how Earthfolk could make her ribs creak. Then Ty Lee pounced on her with a hug. Mai just rolled her eyes, which was gratifying. Mai was still Mai, even if Mai was a thousand miles from where she should be, and what did Zuko mean Uncle Iroh was here? Ugh. Ugh, ugh, ugh. She hated the old bastard and the way he had treated her like an Earth Kingdom girl when she was still a Fire Nation princess who didn't even know how they treated Earth Kingdom girls.
Slowly, it crept up on her that she was exhausted. There were Dai Li agents littering the floor, Mai and Ty Lee were here, her stupid brother was arguing with his idiot friend, Lei was here, and her hands were cold. Ty Lee was chattering, Lei was murmuring reassurances, and Mai wasn't saying anything, but she just let their words wash over her.
"Shut up!" Lok roared, and everyone fell silent. His hand settled on her shoulder, and she found herself gently propelled into Lei's arms. "You watch out for her. You three, keep an eye out for Dai Li reinforcements or any of them waking up. Pointy girl, watch her back."
"Pointy girl?" Mai said mildly.
"Yeah," Lok said, his voice hard, then he stomped away. Azula watched him, allowing Lei to hold her. He shifted into an earthbending stance, brought his palms together, then lunged and split his hands apart-
Lei gasped. Ty Lee eeped. Mai looked impressed. Azula stared at the new tunnel still splitting upwards through the rock with a ragged roar.
"Why aren't you in the army?" Zuko's friend asked, sounding gobsmacked.
"Because I'm good at avoiding press-gangs. Let's go, kids."
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"Sir." Hyo handed Long Feng an old report. The Director looked as serene and unruffled as he had when Hyo brought him dinner, despite being roused from his pallet several hours before dawn. The guards, on the other hand, were giving him distinctly unpleasant looks. Hyo merely smiled at them and tipped his hat. One paled, and both backed away from the shut door and pretended to be guarding something else that just happened to occupy the same space.
"You're quite certain?" Long Feng asked when he finished the report.
"I'd stake my life on it."
The Director nodded. "I believe we need to speak with Lord Lee then." His eyes flickered towards the guard on his cell. "And if you could be so kind, Hyo, please tell Xin Wan I would like his company tomorrow morning."
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It was getting into the hottest part of the afternoon, which made Ozai appreciate the serving maid constantly refilling his glass. The chilled fruit juice was expensive, but not as extravagantly so as it would be later in the summer. The open shutters let in more dust from the street than breezes and the two off-duty soldiers and one smuggler playing mahjong with him were inept at the game. He should have been winning, but the run-in with Iroh the other day still had him shaken.
So his brother had come to take the city again. By stealth, this time, so at least Iroh had learned something. Probably he would open the gates when they were closer to the Comet, let the army waiting outside just march right in and all over Ozai's plans. Wasn't that always the way?
The smuggler startled, nearly sending his stool clattering to the floor, and a hard hand clapped down on Ozai's shoulder. "Sir, you need to come with us."
Ozai tilted his head back slightly to see two Dai Li standing over him. This again? Hadn't their little chat four years ago been enough? "When I finish this hand."
The stone-covered hand on his shoulder tightened, nearly cracking his collarbone. He pressed his lips together to keep from betraying how much it hurt and outwaited the Dai Li agent.
"Whatever it is you want," he said evenly, "it isn't time-sensitive, or you would have taken me already." His voice hardened. "Sit down like civilized people while I finish this hand."
The soldiers and the smuggler looked at him as if he was crazy. The Dai Li sat down.
Ozai smiled. "It's my turn."